Kredal's Force Unleashed Shadow Stormtrooper build

[Kredal[TK]]

I've got an Anovos Shadowtrooper kit on the way, but I'm going to be doing something very different with it.  I don't know how many people picked up the Shadow kit at the super cheap prices they were asking for a while, but I was one of them.  I don't want to get confused with Darth Vader when I wear it, and all black is really boring.  So instead, I'll be turning it into one of the Shadow Stormtroopers from an old video game, The Force Unleashed. 

 

 

It's mostly silver and grey, with blue lights shining from under some plates, and through others. (No, it doesn't include the light saber on the belt as seen in this picture, unfortunately)

 

So: I had TKittell make me a silver belt (his standard awesome TK belt, but with a cover layer of silver cloth that's supposed to be for ironing board covers.) 

 

I've got black Imperial Boots on order, that I'll be painting grey, and adding the burgundy stripe up the edge.  

 

I've got plenty of LED strips on order (60 LEDs per meter, individually addressable.)  They'll usually be programmed to shine light blue, but I plan on having a potentiometer wheel or pushbutton setup to change colors, become rainbowy, stuff like that.  Any Arduino code will be posted here, too.

 

 

I plan on cutting out the cheek stripes to have blue glow from inside shine out.  Same with the eye sockets and mouth.  Because it's all black plastic, painted silver, the glow should only come from where I want it to.  Keeping it from shining out the neck may be tricky, but should be doable.

 

 

The TD on the belt is made of clear plastic, and shines down onto the butt plate.  An acrylic tube will do that pretty easily.  There's also a strip of LEDs behind the thigh ammo plate on the right leg that shines onto the leg.

 

The calves, forearms, and shoulders are going to be the tricky part.  Because the armor that I'm getting is black, light won't shine through it.  My current plan is to make single-use molds from the Anovos plates and making clear or frosted versions of those plates.  As soon as I get a usable pull, I'll be destroying the molds, and I really don't expect the Anovos plates to survive the encounter either.  No worries about recasting for me.  I won't end up with more armor than I can use, it'll just be clear instead of black at the end of the day.

 

So, I'll take those clear plates, paint most of them silver or black, as needed, and let the light shine through what is still translucent. (the indents, top and bottom edges on the forearms, the bottom edges of the calves, and the sides and bottom edges of the shoulder bells.

 

According to my calculations, at half brightness on the LED strips, a 5000mAh power supply should last about 4 hours of trooping.  Having my handler carry around another battery pack will outlast any troop I've done to date. 

 

This thread will document my build, and with any luck at all, my completed TFU Shadowtrooper. (which may end up being only the second in the Legion, which would be cool.)

 

The CRL doesn't have pictures up yet, but it's here, for what it's worth.

[tkrestonva[TK]]

I am SO looking forward to being able to see this in person!

[Fivezero[501st]]

Hey Josh! This is the same Ty you've been poking about this build, can't wait to see your progress!!

And here's the first Force Unleashed - Shadow Stormtrooper (mid-build) for everyone else.

 

------------

 

Fivezero

Edited June 22, 2021 by gmrhodes13
link not working, removed gmrhodes13 2021

[Skypig[TK]]

That is going to be epic.  I'm following this.  Can't wait to see the build.

[Kredal[TK]]

Uh oh, already have followers.  Anovos, where's my shadow armor?  (:

 

I guess my next step is going to be making sure the lighting works.  I've got some other strips that I can mess with in my current TK, just to see how the lighting works... and I have to work out a system of getting all the wires leading to the different plates through my undersuit, in a way that's also removable so I can wash the suit.

 

I've got an Ironman shirt that has a velcro'd in cloth channel leading from the Arc reactor to the battery pack, I think I'll do something like that, but on a much larger scale.  I can have wire hookups poking through the suit under each of the lit plates, so as I put on the armor, I just click in the hookups.  Power and ground will come directly from the battery pack, and each individual plate can have its own data pin on the Arduino, so I don't have to worry about chaining things. 

 

Lit sections:

- Left shoulder

- Left forearm

- Right shoulder

- Right forearm

- Chest (directly connected, no need to channel it, since the power supply and everything can live in the chest plate

- TD (a wire connected to the belt, threaded right next to one of the TD clips should work.  Caulk up the hole to make it watertight again)

- Right knee plate

- Left calf

- Right calf

 

So what is that, 9 pins?  Plus one more for a pot wheel or button?  Hey, a Trinket has plenty of pins, works off 5v, and is small enough to stick directly to the battery with Velcro or something.  Making an 8 pin wiring harness (to connect everything not chest-based) is pretty trivial.  Got that sorted at least.  While I'm waiting for the armor, I can get that programmed up in a morning or two, cut holes in a supersuit (what I call my undersuit, thanks Incredibles), and start getting the wiring done in preparation.

 

Oh, and if I wanted to get REALLY fancy, I have some 2.4GHz transmitters that I can use to wirelessly connect the helmet lights with the body lights, so if I want to change colors, I can do that everywhere, and not have red around my whole body but blue in the bucket.  Takes another Arduino-like device up top, but they're cheap. (:  That'll take some extra programming to get right, but it's workable.

[mikedwelle94[TK]]

Following. This is gonna be fun to watch.

[Kredal[TK]]

I got the first part of the costume in this morning!  TKittell's awesome canvas belt, dressed up in silver!  

 

 

I also got a plain white belt that's going to be used for my Stunt TK (waiting on a new AM helmet for that), but anyways, I can't recommend this guy enough.  If you've got an Anovos kit, you really need to do yourself a favor and pick up a belt from TKittell.  

 

You can go here to see all about them and to make an order.  http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/19803-fs-white-canvas-belts/

 

Seriously, what are you waiting for?  (:

 

Aaaaaanyway, I started work on the light programming last night, I haven't actually put it on an Arduino yet.  That'll be Soon.

[Kredal[TK]]

Slight change to the lighting.  Rather than use a potentiometer to adjust the colors/patterns/whatever, I found this at Adafruit, while ordering two Pro Trinkets.  I bought two of them along with two remotes. The two recievers will be attached to the Trinkets in the bucket and chest plate, so when I hit a button on the remote, it'll affect both sets of lights.  I bought two remotes to take one apart and wire up the buttons (maybe, no clue if this will work as expected) to the ab button plate, possibly with hall effect sensors and a magnet in a glove.  I really don't know about that yet... worst case, I mount one of the remotes under a belt drop box so it's accessible to me.  I dunno yet.  (:

 

Well, I *WAS* going to upload the code I have written so far to github, but it's down right now.  Whoops.  I'll get it there soon.  Of course, it still hasn't hit silicon, and I'm missing the controlling bits, and I have no idea yet how many LEDs will be in each section, so it's full of best guesses and commented out things.

[Kredal[TK]]

Alright, first version of the code that's going to go on the Trinket is at https://github.com/kredal/shadowtrooper  There's not much to it yet, but it's there to play with.

Edited January 28, 2016 by Kredal

[Airborne Trooper[501st]]

Would it be possible to configure an adrino in your helmet to control the lights and fan? 2 birds with one stone kind of thing? Will be watching for your updates

[Kredal[TK]]

Would it be possible to configure an adrino in your helmet to control the lights and fan? 2 birds with one stone kind of thing? Will be watching for your updates

Yeah, I will most likely use the same battery for both helmet accessories.  There's not much of a need to use the Arduino to control the fans.  They're on regardless, so if anything, I would just pipe the power through the bus pin on the Arduino... same as the lights.

 

Oh, and I'll edit this post so I don't fill up the page with my posts that don't have anything to do with building.

 

I'm talking with Walt of WTF to see about pulling the clear/frosted plates I need, so I don't have to take the time and expense to do my own casting and molding and forming, and worrying about being called a recaster, and all that.  Hopefully he'll come through for me.  (:  I don't have any sort of working relationship with any other armor maker who could do that (AM2, where I got my first kit, does runs in bulk, in a factory-like setting...)

Edited February 2, 2016 by Kredal

[Kredal[TK]]

Little update.  The first wireless receiver I tested the code with was DOA.  So, getting a replacement from Adafruit.  The code works well though, as long as the hardware is functional.  (:  Just have to press the button for about half a second for the receiver board to pick it up.  Good enough.  And still, considering that probably 99% of the time, it's gonna just be blue, the whole system is probably overkill.  (:

 

Walt checked on buying plastic, his supplier was going to make him make a full order of the frosted acrylic, to the tune of $3500.  Um, yeah, I'm not gonna pay for that.  So I've got a quote in with a local plastic supplier who doesn't mind doing small (one or two sheet) orders, and cutting them down to size.  I can buy 2 sheets, cut them to fit in Walt's former, mail them to him, and pay for return shipping of the finished plates, and come out way ahead of the $3500.  (:  If I can't, I will DRIVE the sheets to him, and come out ahead!  (:

 

I'm still waiting on the LED strips I bought wholesale from China, and of course the Anovos shadow armor.  But given how quickly everyone seems to be getting the white armor, it may not be as long as expected!

[fueledbychar]

On 1/27/2016 at 9:42 AM, Fivezero said:

Hey Josh! This is the same Ty you've been poking about this build, can't wait to see your progress!!

And here's the first Force Unleashed - Shadow Stormtrooper (mid-build) for everyone else.

 

--------------

 

Fivezero

 

 

This is awesome. Do you have a build thread for yours? 

Edited June 22, 2021 by gmrhodes13
link not working, removed gmrhodes13 2021

[Kredal[TK]]

Little update: Sent Walt clear acrylic sheets at .060 thickness.  He did one pull, and it broke into pieces when he tried to cut away the scrap plastic.  Hrmm.  He's drying and will temperature control the next sheet before pulling, and let me know how it goes.  He said the pull looked great, but then it died.  I may have to go back to the drawing board if this doesn't work.  :/

 

I have some ideas, but I won't be able to test them until my Anovos kit arrives anyway.

[Kredal[TK]]

Update the next: All of the acrylic I sent Walt ended up shattering after it was pulled and being cut.  So, yeah. Major bummer.

 

Also, I managed to order a black kit from AM 2.0, so I know it'll all fit me. Yay for big boy armor!  It'll still have to be painted, but when it gets scratched, it'll turn black and not white, so good there.  Also, it should resist being seen through like a thin pull of white armor would (thinking specifically of the helmet here.

 

Fivezero is using EL tape for the areas around the shins and forearms, I may have to go that route. I really don't want to, since it doesn't match the glow of LEDs, but I may not have a choice in the matter.  The CRL for that costume is still pictureless, so I may be able to get away with lights under the plates, shining out onto my gloves and boots from up under them. We'll see.  That would also mean those particular pieces will be larger than normal so there's more gap for light to shine through. Another benefit of AM2 armor. (:

 

Adafruit sells an Arduino dev board that has a bluetooth chip built on, and a companion iPhone app that has a color wheel and buttons you can push to send commands.  Using that to choose colors or patterns may work out way better than being stuck with just 4 options as with the garage door opener-like thing I picked up before.  Amazing how much technology can move while waiting for parts!

[Kredal[TK]]

Yesterday was BBB day! It was delivered at about 5:00, I had to go adult for an hour or so, and then I got to work on the kit. 

 

 

 

AM2 armor comes very well packed. There's a sheet of foam between every single plate, and more around packs of stuff (similarly shaped parts are packed together)  Everything is pre-trimmed, usually with wide flat sections for larger folks, and big return edges to cut larger folks.  (: 

 

 

Everything unpacked and placed in the armor bin I picked up at Target last week.  You can see some of the huge flat parts especially on the thigh plates at the top of this image.  Even the front sides have them, so they had to get cut down to ~13mm on either side.  (I was really happy with the cover strip sizes used on my white kit, so I'll be copying them... basically 5mm wider than "standard" since I'm a little bit bigger than standard)

 

 

Here are some parts that won't be used... Anyone making a black sandtrooper?  (:  The small 3-dot plate at the right side of the picture is a new part that comes with AM2 armor now, I didn't get those with my white kit.  The ab button plate with the divots is there if you want to have metal buttons, which the kit comes with. It's not the "right" way to do it, but it comes with the kit still if you want to. Same with the older style belt with indents. It comes with both belts, just in case.  Also ESB and cheese grater handplates.  Still not sure what the flat shoulder straps are used for.

 

 

Anyway... After ~3 hours of work, I had the fronts of all the limb parts cut down to size, and most of the snap plates installed in the core sections.  I'm using nylon strapping for the snap plates, and after being held on with magnets for 3 hours when it's 85 degrees in the garage (with a little AC unit on!) they're solid enough to take the magnets off, to use on other parts. 

 

I don't know if I've said it here, but I plan on building this kit to get approval as a straight black Shadowtrooper, doing at least one or two troops with it, and then breaking it back down to paint silver and grey as needed, and turn it into the Force Unleashed trooper.  I was really hoping that the CRL might have pictures by the time I started, but it still doesn't... I'll work with my GML to make sure everything I'm doing meets the spirit of the CRL as written, so it should be a pretty smooth approval process.  (:

[mgb1016[501st]]

OMG Josh I can't wait to see this in person!!!!  This makes me want to go play TFU again lol!!  I LOVE the lighting effects!

[Kredal[TK]]

Last night I got the thighs completely trimmed, and started gluing them together.  I also finished gluing up all of the core snap plates, and made a couple straps to start holding together the ab and kidney so I can put that on, and line up where the chest needs to go.

 

No pictures, because I was doing it all in my supersuit, and my phone wasn't around. (:

 

I didn't do much, because it was entirely too hot in my garage.

[Kredal[TK]]

As posted on Facebook:

 

This kit, I'm doing all the inside strips as I go, and then I'll do cover strips on all the parts at once. The thighs and shins are done except for cover strips, ammo pack and sniper knee, and the core is completely done including button plates on the ab.

 

The CRL says nothing about the cod to butt connection, so I dunno if I should have things showing (snap backs and rivets) or do everything with snap plates. Same with the left side connection and rivets. I already put the Han snap on the right side, so I'll probably just do the rest.

 

 

Later, I found the "Specialist" rank on the Spec Ops forum, and realized that it's basically the Centurion requirements... Since that's where I'm building towards anyway, I'll be submitting.

 

For some reason, they don't think the AM2 helmet (because it's a 3 part bucket?) is good enough for Specialist, so I'll probably end up borrowing a friend's WTF bucket to take pictures.  Nevermind that I made Centurion over here no problem with an AM2 helmet... whatever.

 

Of course, I don't "need" to make Specialist, but I want to anyway before I take the kit apart again for painting and installing lights and stuff.  I know, it's a silly thing, but still... it's my thing.  (:

 

As far as armor making goes, I'm done with the legs with the exception of cover strips and velcro on the back of the shins.  The core armor is done except for the plastic shoulder straps (and the black elastic holding them down in back, now that I see that's a thing).  I just ordered the black belt last night, it will probably be here Wednesday, given my history of ordering belts from TKittell.

 

Got arms to do between now and then, and a helmet to build (waiting on mirrored lenses for it, should be here "soon")

 

Having another AM2 kit already done is making this go so much faster... drop the new parts outside the old kit, mark where they were cut (giving a little bit more room as needed), make the cut, and stick it together.  (:

[sylverbard[TK]]

 

 

As posted on Facebook:

 

 

 

For some reason, they don't think the AM2 helmet (because it's a 3 part bucket?) is good enough for Specialist, so I'll probably end up borrowing a friend's WTF bucket to take pictures. Nevermind that I made Centurion over here no problem with an AM2 helmet... whatever.

 

That would be cheating, a violation of the members agreement , and disrespectful of the other Specialists.

 

As with photoshopped pictures for submissions, borrowing kit to reach a higher echelon is...well...if you really need the specialist patch that badly.

 

Sell yours and buy an ata black helm.

[Kredal[TK]]

Fair enough.  I just don't get why AM2 isn't good enough for Specialist when it's just fine for Centurion.  There is a difference between the original AM/FX bucket and the AM2 bucket, but the powers that be over there don't see it that way.

[sylverbard[TK]]

Because our costumes are real, irregular, and hard to film. Their costumes are idealized computer models and therefore perfect from every angle I guess.

[sylverbard[TK]]

Even the base URL says most helmets are unsuitable...you need an idealized symmetrical helm. Maybe that what there are no crl photos?

[sylverbard[TK]]

Besides is there even a force awakens speciaList?

[Kredal[TK]]

Even the base CRL says most helmets are unsuitable...you need an idealized symmetrical helm. Maybe that what there are no crl photos?

 

The TFU-TX CRL only has one person who has built a kit that could take pictures (Fivezero), and he's been fighting with his kit for years. 

 

The base TX CRL, on the other hand... I find it super amusing that the armor being shown off in the top pictures are either AM or NE, with the squared-off boobs and oversized back plate.

 

But AM helmets aren't good enough for Specialist.